Growing Up (PDF)

Growing Up: Pastoral Nurture for the Later Years is a sensitive volume devoted to helping older adults retain their status as meaningful members of their congregations and communities. In an honest approach, based on the foundations that old age is supposed to happen, the future belongs to the old, and vocation for people of faith is lifelong, Thomas Robb provides personal and Biblical perspectives, as well as research from over 20 years as a pastor, on the life process and the feelings, worries, and expectations accompanying growing up and growing old. He then molds these concerns into a challenge for congregations and their spiritual leaders to actively assist the aged in coping with and overcoming fears and barriers limiting the fullest expression of faith in God. This insightful book describes the tasks and suggests programs for pastors and congregations everywhere in meeting the challenge, making life for the aged more than shuffleboard and bingo, pot-luck dinners and day trips. Dimensions of pastoral ministries that nurture women and men who, at midlife and beyond, seek to find their way through the unexpected and unplanned, through the third of life following parenthood and careers, are described in detail. Pastors, church leaders, congregations, professors of courses in ministry and aging, aging church members, and seminary students will benefit immensely from the wealth of information presented in Growing Up: Pastoral Nurture for the Later Years.